Miroslav Lajčák is a diplomat with more than 30 years’ experience in foreign policy, having represented both the Slovak Republic and the international community.
In his national capacity, Dr. Lajčák served as Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic for four mandates, a position he first held from 2009 to 2010. From 2012 to 2016, he served as both Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia. He was reappointed as Foreign Minister in 2016 and 2018 respectively, and left office in March 2020. He also was twice Slovak Ambassador, first to Japan (1994 – 1998), and then to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, FYROM and to Albania (2001 – 2005). Currently, he serves as National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister of Slovakia.
A key figure in the mediation of the post-conflict crises in the Western Balkans, Dr. Lajčák served as Executive Assistant to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Balkans from 1999 to 2001. He also negotiated, organized and supervised the referendum on the independence of Montenegro in 2006 on behalf of the European Union. From 2007 to 2009, Dr. Lajčák served as High Representative of the International Community and European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most recently, he served as the European Union Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues (2020 – 2025).
From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Lajčák helped shape the newly formed diplomatic service of the European Union, the European External Action Service, as its first Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia.
Representing the international community, he served as President of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly in 2017-2018. He also held the position of Chairperson-in-Office during Slovakia’s 2019 Chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the largest regional security organization.
Dr. Lajčák holds a doctorate of law awarded by the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia and graduated in international relations from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He is an alumni of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Dr. Lajčák has also received five honorary doctorates from the following foreign universities: the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest (2018), the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (2018), the University of Mostar (2019), the University of Montenegro (2019) and the University of National and World Economy in Sofia (2019).
He regularly gives guest lectures about European foreign policy, peace-building and mediation, international relations and multilateralism at internationally renowned institutions such as John Hopkins University, College d’Europe, Harvard University, London School of Economics, Stanford University or Princeton. Currently he is a part-time professor at the European University Institute in Florence, where he teaches a course about EU Foreign and Security Policies in a post-Western World as part of the master program in transnational governance.
He has received several awards, including six state awards: the Order of the Yugoslav Star, 1st Class (2005), the Order of Honour of the Republic of Moldova (2014), the Order of the Montenegrin Great Star (2016), the Royal Order of the Polar Star awarded by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf (2020), the Order Star of Romania in the rank Grand Officer (2020) and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan (2022).
Dr. Lajčák is a member of the European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR), of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Europe, the International Advisory Board of the European Forum Alpbach, the International board of GLOBSEC and he is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia.
He was born on 20 March 1963 in Poprad, Slovakia. He is married and has two daughters.